Like most discoveries and man made inventions, observations were made from nature for the end result. As you will see, coffee is no different. There are a few stories of the origin of coffee consumption, but this one seems to be the most well known so lets start here. This story originates from Kaffa Ethiopia in the 9^th century. It is said there was a young goat herder named Kaldi, one day he observed his herd of goats getting very excited and acting silly after eating a little berry. Kaldi decided to pick a handful of these greenish yellow and red berries to bring to a nearby monastery to ask the monks if they knew what they were. The chaplain there told Kaldi that the “magic berries” were a temptation from the devil and threw them into a nearby fire. Well, a short time later they began to permeate the unique roasted aroma of these coffee fruits. They quickly plucked them out of the coals and the story creates its history here.

I have read that in Ethiopia the coffee fruit was mixed with grease or animal fat and made into a stiff dough that was eaten raw. Quite a rare and different way of consuming coffee vs the drink we know today. As far as who was the first peoples to consume the coffee plant, I’m not sure we will ever truly know for sure but, there is some evidence from Chinese manuscripts stating they were making a tea out of the coffee fruit 1000 years before the modern era!

The Arabs, 1000 after Christ, were the first ones making tea with the green bean, later roasting and grinding coffee beans to make a version of the brew we know so well around the world today. They were also the first to cultivate coffee in plantations in Yemen. Greece and Turkey also have a long relationship with coffee as well as Europe. Italians are famed for the very common drink Espresso that many can not go their day without! The coffee we know and love has arrived due to a group effort of many cultures, ecosystems and communities bringing us this undeniably most widely traded and consumed product from the tropical climates.

Whatever the story might be, here we are today in a world highly influenced by coffee consumption and the caffeine infatuation. It is now added to chocolate, sauces, moles and even ice creams. We love our coffee! How many products can you think of that contain coffee?!